With November Election Approaching, Coalition Reflects on Bipartisan Support for Carbon Management

Americans face major decisions at the polls, with the 2024 Election a mere 57 days away. However the election plays out, one thing is clear: carbon management technologies must continue to be an essential piece of a broader federal strategy to reduce planet-warming emissions, provide reliable American energy, and preserve and create jobs that families and local economies depend upon while spurring investment in domestic energy, industry, and manufacturing sectors.  

Robust Bipartisan Support

Carbon management technologies have been a valuable component of the United States multifaceted strategy to combat and mitigate the worst impacts of global climate change for nearly two decades. Historically, robust and wide-ranging bipartisan support for carbon management technologies has played a crucial role in advancing efforts to deploy these technologies at the levels necessary to have a meaningful impact on rising global temperatures while safeguarding our nation’s economic interests.

Time and again, carbon management has proven to be a domestic climate and energy issue that can bridge the gap between Democrats and Republicans alike, whether with climate hawks or members from states that produce the energy Americans rely on daily. While bipartisan collaboration on carbon management policy dates back to legislation like the Energy Act of 2005 and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, in more recent years, the enactment of groundbreaking legislation like the 2018 FUTURE Act expanded and restructured the federal Section 45Q tax credit, ensuring a broader range of sectors could access the credit, while the passage of the USE IT Act in 2019 began tackling a host of challenges associated with permitting these complex projects. Together, these important bipartisan advancements in carbon management federal policy laid the groundwork for the next generation of investments needed to realize economywide deployment of these essential technologies.

Diverse Interests Coalesce Around Carbon Management

The intersection of climate and energy policy has traditionally convened a coalition of unlikely collaborators—and carbon management is no exception. Bipartisan support for carbon management has only grown over the course of the past several years, underscoring a unified commitment to leveraging American innovation to tackle climate challenges, protect and expand jobs in traditional energy sectors, and ensure that the US remains a global leader in clean energy technologies. The most significant legislative successes to date would not have been possible without a diverse group of stakeholders and policymakers working to provide comprehensive federal policy support for these technologies.

The Carbon Capture Coalition’s broad membership, which includes environmental and conservation policy organizations, industry leaders, and labor voices, represents the diversity of advocates in this sector committed to ensuring carbon management technologies scale at the rate necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, these diverse allies uniting in common cause made possible the enactment of the most significant carbon management federal policy to date, including key provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and essential enhancements to the 45Q tax credit.

Though the investments in these technologies made under the 117th Congress are just beginning to take hold, the benefits are already being seen and felt across the entire American economy. While there has been some concern between Republicans and Democrats over the partisan mechanism used to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, Members of Congress across the political spectrum recognize that energy tax credits, including 45Q, are driving investment and job creation in their states and districts. This support demonstrates that 45Q, and carbon management broadly, is good policy, above all else.

The Carbon Capture Coalition looks forward to working with the next administration and continuing to collaborate in a bipartisan way with Members of Congress to ensure that the full suite of carbon management technologies can be developed and deployed as an essential climate and economic development solution. Carbon management technologies are essential to maintaining domestic energy and manufacturing production, protecting and creating family-sustaining jobs that local economies depend on while maintaining America’s place on the world stage as a technology innovation leader.

###

Convened by the Great Plains Institute, the Carbon Capture Coalition is a nonpartisan collaboration of more than 100 companies, unions, conservation and environmental policy organizations, building federal policy support to enable economywide, commercial scale deployment of carbon management technologies. This includes carbon capture, removal, transport, utilization, and storage from industrial facilities, power plants, and ambient air.